Fluorescence Interactive

You’ve probably heard of Four Square, but you probably haven’t come across many examples of brands making good use of it. This is a shame, because although usage does still remain relatively low, it’s growing exponentially (500k users at beginning of March and their Twitter feed stated they hope to reach 1m imminently). Moreover, it offers great potential for any brand that relies on people paying them a visit.

If you haven’t heard of Four Square, it’s a location‐based social network that’s been around for a little over a year. Its principal idea of sharing your location isn’t new as there are plenty of predecessors including Brightkite, Google latitude, Loopt and the little known Dodgeball. But the main difference is the addition of a social gaming mechanic which encourages you to collect badges as you check in to locations, and ultimately revel in the glory of becoming the mayor of any given establishment – from art gallery to local kebab shop.

It’s this social gaming mechanic, combined with other current hot topics of being both social network and mobile application all rolled up into one, which no doubt has many planning and creative types up and down the land pontificating its usage.

One of the few brands that have done something about it is Debenhams. They offer free coffee to whoever can claim to be the Mayor of their Oxford Street branch. And to give us all a chance of getting involved, free coffee on Fridays to anyone who checks in.

Debenhams’ Four Square effort is admirable and top marks for giving it a go, but it would be far stronger to tie the incentive into the social gaming mechanic itself. Perhaps the only branded example that does that nicely is, unsurprisingly, from one of the biggest social media pioneers of the last couple of years – Starbucks in the US. To add to their impressive Facebook and Twitter pages, MyStarbucksIdea crowdsourcing site and innovative mobile apps, they have recently launched the ‘Barrista’ badge on Four Square which can be unlocked by checking into five different Starbucks locations. Interestingly, they’ve also employed the ‘Tips’ feature which ties in nicely with their crowdsourcing program. Four Square is ripe for any brand that wants to maximise the number of customers that come through its doors. All they need do is find a cunning way of adding a relevant incentive into the social gaming mechanic.

Ideas – There are so many opportunities – all it requires is a little imagination.

Four brand opportunities spring to mind:

1. St Elmo’s could offer an extra topping badge on unlocking the ‘Pizza Novice’ badge, increasing to a 2 for 1 voucher with the ‘Connoisseur’ badge after 5 visits.
2. Nu Metro could offer free popcorn after unlocking the ‘Nu King’ badge.
3. Discovery Health wants to get my unshapely lump into my local gym to reduce my liability to them, why not unlock some of their Vitality partner rewards the more I visit my local Virgin Active?
4. McDonald’s could neatly integrate Four Square within a loyalty program, enabling me to unlock the likes of ‘Lovers Lane’ to help me complete my virtual McDonald’s game board.

One of the potential flaws around Four Square is one of customers ‘cheating’ by happily unlocking badges from the comfort of their sofa. But Four Square is cracking down on this by tapping into yourmobile phone’s GPS location to ensure you can only accrue a badge if you’re in the vicinity of the location.

Popularity: 1% [?]

In today’s dynamic and fast past business world it’s invaluable to have a link to industry statistics, new innovations and inspiring ways to market your business better and more cost effectively.
We find ourselves constantly scouring the web for this information and have come across some useful links that we’d like to share with you.

1. Cream – Innovation exchange
   Home to more than 2,500 examples of innovative brand communications, with 50 case studies added each month. Try the inspiration tool called cream shuffle for some great ideas.
   http://www.creamglobal.com/cream-testimonial-page
2. Fuel Brand Network
   Fuel your creativity whether it be blogs, applications, photography, design and more.
   http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/
3. Inspired Mag
   Inspiration and creative showcase to keep the juices flowing.
   http://www.inspiredm.com/
4. Geek Sugar
   The online leader in original content, social media, and commerce for trendsetting Y women. We help brands connect, engage, and be discovered by this influential generation.
   http://www.geeksugar.com/
5. Wired Magazine
   A great general news and information site on everything from gadgets to science.
   http://www.wired.com/
6. Marketing
   Successful sales and marketing tips for your business.
   http://www.marketingco.biz/
7. Nielsen
   Global digital statistics on what’s moving the numbers and who’s making the most noise.
   http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/social-networking-new-global-footprint/
8. Bandwidth Blog
   South African technology news and insights.
   http://www.bandwidthblog.com/
9. Tweet your heart out
   Get the most out of your tweets with these great applications.
   http://mashable.com/2007/09/29/twitter-toolbox/
10. Social Media Strategy
    Our blog is all about Internet Marketing and we strive to inform you how you as a company can build your brand and leverage the internet to achieve your business goals.
    http://www.socialmediastrategy.co.za/index.php/general/why-social-media-in-south-africa-will-not-fail/

Popularity: 1% [?]

In June this year - Fluorescence USA officially opened new offices in Houston, Texas USA. This is almost a month after we started turning heads in the mother city with the new Fluorescence Cape-town branch.

Fluorescence have become active in the USA more than 3 years ago building an e-commerce site for one of the largest USA based online diamond and jewelry retailers named Whiteflash.com. Soon after that we started doing banner campaigns and corporate IDs for one of the USA’s largest PEO companies – Administaff. Since then we have built a steady relationship with the company and have reached preferred digital supplier in 2009. The idea to open a USA based company started early on – but became viable this year when new lucrative opportunities started requiring more dedicated resources abroad.

To contact our Houston offices please call: 866 777 7478, email houston@fluorescence.co.za or post Fluorescence Interactive, 526 Kingwood Drive – Suite 162, Kingwood, Houston, Texas, 77339

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When ink and inspiration come together to meet a t-shirt beautiful things can happen.

Recently one of our designers Seth Beukes entered a threadless.com competition where users and friends where asked to rate the numerous designs submissions in a challenge to stand out and get the highest average rating overall.

Seth got an average score of 2.97 out of 5 and was scored by 584 people.

This is what Seth had to say about his design and what inspired him; “Inspiration for me starts with a pen and ink. So when I did this design I was attempting to express that important part of my design process. I have always been a fan of doodling and sketch art.”

Take a moment to check it out http://www.threadless.com/product/2343/INKspired

Popularity: 1% [?]

We’ve been working on user experience design and interfaces for the online, mobile and touch screen spaces now for a number of years and the conventions have been pretty constant up until late with the launch of the Ipad. The user experience considerations have to be noted with many current Flash games, menus, and even video players requiring a visible mouse pointer. They are coded to rely on the difference between hovering over something (mouseover) vs. actually clicking. This distinction is not rare. It’s pervasive, fundamental to interactive design, and vital to the basic use of most online content.

Mouseover examples:

1. Video players where the controls appear on mouseover and hide otherwise. (This seems to be the norm, in fact. Whereas a click on the same video does something different: usually Pause. Try Hulu for instance.)
2. Games where you steer with the mouse without clicking (extremely common).
3. Menus that popup up subpage links when you mouse over a main button, vs. going directly to a main category page when you click.
4. Buttons that have important explanations/summaries on mouseover, which you need to understand before deciding what to click.
5. Functions that use mouseover to preview and click to commit; such as choosing hair colors for an avatar: you mouse over the colors until your character looks the way you like, and then you click to commit.
6. Maps and diagrams that don’t use click at all, but pop up info as you mouse around.
7. Numerous other custom mouseover functions that “just work” with a mouse and need no explanation.

None of these things can work right with a finger (or traditional stylus) because on a touchscreen, pointing at something without clicking isn’t a mouseover: The Ipad doesn’t know it’s happening. New Flash content designed just for touchscreens can be done, but people want existing Flash sites to work. Challenging when you look at the Safari reference Library on “Preparing your web content for Ipad”.

Here’s a list of things we’ve found in our reseearch to be key in Ipad user experience.

1. Orientation
   The Ipad user doesn’t perceive the device as having a default orientation
   so build your content in a way that can viewed at both vertically and horizontally.
   The reason for this orientation is because users don’t pay attention to the minimal frame of the device and are unconscerned with the home button.
2. Merge the Information Hierarchy
   Try avoid making users visit many screens for what they want. This said, be sure not to cram everything into one screen
   making the user feel as though the page isn’t consumable. Stick to relevant essential information on the main screen and provide additional information and tools in an auxillary view.
3. Connectedness
   Consider how users might physically use your application to share with others. Think about the sharing of data on a single as well as virtual content sharing.
4. Tangible sensory experience
   Make your appliation feel realistic in its interaction by adding true to life physical engagement of elements where appropriate. This make the interaction seem logical and more enjoyable to the user.
5. Pimp it
   Make your interfaces crafted and polished to compliment the Ipad’s high resolution screen. Design beautiful graphics to make the simplest interaction rewarding.
6. Empasize the king
   Help people focus on content by reducing the amount of application controls, making the content frame subtle and creating custom controls that follow the style of your application interface.
7. Minimize the journey
   Ipads user interact in a non-linear way so keep the choices simple and reduce the room for movement forcing users down a particular path.
8. PopOvers
   Much like a modal window in the online space, popovers allow user to view content in an overlay state while keeping their original content in view.
9. K.I.S.S.
   Reducing the complexity of the interface and allowing users to achieve complex task quickly and simply makes for a better user experience.
10. File Handling
    The Ipad has file handling capabilities allowing users to create, manipulate and share content. Utilise this with caution.
11. Ask when necessary
    If your application allows users to create, edit and delete documents make sure you autosave and only ask for user action when necessary. Users should feel safe that there documents are preserved.
12. Always stop
    When users click home make sure you application stops.

So where next for interactive designers as we find new interfaces making content more tangible and sensory? Ipads touch interface is reshaping userbility considerations and it’s exiting to see how we will “Tap to toggle the future” as devices and applications evolve from here.

Get developing applications for the Ipad:
http://developer.apple.com/ipad/sdk/
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/General/…

Popularity: 2% [?]

It’s nothing new anymore but establishing a revenue stream from Twitter has been a challenging if not impossible endeavor. In the 4 years Twitter has been around there have been a number of experiments to build revenue for businesses, namely:

Search

Twitter acquired search.twitter.com in the summer of 2008. Of the many applications built on top of the Twitter API, this had shown to be incredibly popular. In fact, it had the potential to overpower Twitter’s servers to such a degree that for the first year, they did not put up a search box but hid the feature at the bottom of the results page along with “about us, contact”, etc. This search is very powerful, as proven during the recent Iran upheaval when Twitter was one of the only ways to get word out. While Twitter has said that they will not run ads, their users would not object to the monetization of search through an adwords-type solution.

Ecommerce

First Dell and then many other companies have sold millions of dollars worth of equipment through Twitter. If Dell only has, say, 45 of a product left, it does not pay to put up an eBay page. They post it on @DellOutlet, or another of their accounts, and the product sells immediately. I’m sure that if Twitter is not asking now, they will in the future charge a small commission for such direct sales. Who could object?

BTB consumer help

This summer, Twitter and Best Buy started an experiment with @TwelpForce. They have over 13,000 followers and you can ask anything and a Best Buy employee will answer. They’ve even promoted this through TV. This is the future of customer/vendor communications.

Twitter 101

Twitter 101, another program that launched last summer, is a comprehensive tutorial for companies to do business via the help of Twitter. The more businesses use Twitter, the more ways the company will find to monetize their traffic.

Verified accounts

Twitter is in beta test with verified accounts, enterprise subscriptions that confirm that customers are really doing business with the company they are looking for rather than an imposter or squatter. Twitter will charge businesses a small subscription fee for this service.

Applications

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has said that Twitter will not have ads. What I think he means by this is that there will not be a banner ad across the top of Twitter’s website. However, he has said that applications will be featured on Twitter, and an adwords-type feature currently shows one application at a time on the results page. Applications are the graphical ad unit of the future and if done correctly, will be accepted by the Twitterati.

Thousands of applications have monetization potential. According to GigaOm after “TwitterGate,” when somebody hacked Twitter servers, Twitter has considered buying a number of these. And why not? They can get others to do the development and just as they did with search.twitter.com, use the high Twitter valuation to cash in on applications that have proved to be profitable and leverage them against the large Twitter user base.

Network marketing

The larger Twitter grows, the more the connectivity between users benefits all. But there is gold beyond the conversations that are going on. The pure connectivity in itself is valuable. While Twitter may not run advertising, many companies would love to license the right to target people using what is called “birds of a feather” targeting: identifying a group of people with a common interest and then expanding that target by finding others with similar interests. A number of companies are doing this right now, while honoring privacy; they don’t have to know who the people are.

All this has its ups and downs as many who’ve tried have experienced but now there seems to be a new Twitter game on a slow rise called Promoted Tweets.

How Promoted Tweets Work

Twitter are planning on rolling this out slowly but the understanding is that initially, Twitter’s version of keyword ads will appear only on searches conducted on its website; users should’ve started seeing those from 13 April 2010. A single ad appears at the top of a search. That ad is itself a tweet, and users can “re-tweet” the ad to pass it around, make the ad a favorite or reply to it. Advertisers will bid on keywords on a cost-per-thousand basis, but Twitter is developing a performance model that could be the basis for pricing based on a metric called “resonance” — impact judged on how much a tweet is passed around, marked as a favorite or how often a user clicks through a posted link. Ads that perform well will stay in the system; ads that don’t rise above the resonance score of a typical tweet from a marketer will fall out.

Here’s a recent Pixar Twitter campaign for Toy Story 3 found under “Promoted Trend” in trending topics on Twitter.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Just in time for the worlds eyes on the World Cup 2010 Fluorescence sets up offices in Cape Town. The energy in our country right now is electric and we couldn’t be more excited about the expansion of our offices.

Fluorescence Interactive specialize in digital creative solutions from concept to completion. With collectively over 80 years of digital experience we offer boutique digital creative solutions for client such as Standard Bank, Virgin mobile, 5FM, Sars, Eskom, Farrari and TBWA to name a few. Our focus is on all things digital and we are well versed in the integration of traditional media and new media. Our services include digital strategy, search engine optimization, analytics, AdWords and reporting, social media, mobile campaigns coupled with an award winning team of designers and developers.

For more information please visit www.fluorescence.co.za or connect via:

Cape Town
[T] +27 21 790 6673
[E] capetown@fluorescence.co.za

Johannesburg
[T]+27 11 728 1216
[F]+27 11 728 1248
[E] Info@Fluorescence.co.za

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True creative individuals do not have an off switch. Therefore they need a ‘canvas’ to be available to them at all times – to express whatever creative endeavor possesses them in that moment. Our studio is saturated with a surplus of inspiration and our young and talented Seth Beukes is a prime example. We love his cups so much that we’re selling them! If you would like to own one of these completely original designs, or just appreciate their brilliance, please go to www.dezign.co.za

Popularity: 1% [?]

‘Clicking forward’ is to commit, ‘clicking back’ is to subscribe and ‘clicking out’ is to leave. So different clicks have different intentions. What is the same with all these clicks however are the two emotional states of the user. Firstly it is the emotion of ‘what’s in it for me’, and that does not have to relate back to money. Information itself empowers users, and that goes from purchase decisions to mundane stuff like finding a DIY solution to fixing your dish washer or just ogling your friends’ photos on Facebook . The second emotion is the one of frustration or disappointment. When you don’t get what you want, you lose interest and move back to searching or closing your browser.

In the strictest sense every click is an act of building trust. A ‘non click’ in the case of a mailer campaign or a ‘click out’ without any commitment to ‘buy in’ (purchase, bookmark, subscription etc.) is a deterioration of that trust.

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While many people are only now getting on the Twitter bandwagon, many of us are already getting off. It is only recent that Google decided to incorporate Twitter timelines in an effort to incorporate social relevance into its search results. It seems like only yesterday we grasped that Twitter is not a monetization platform but a measurability platform.

The truth is however, Twitter seems to be on its last breath.

To maintain your Twitter account has become a bore and the mindless hours of un-following and searching hardly seems worth it anymore. We still come up with strategies and sell clients the big dream of micro blogging on Twitter, but the truth is – the only people left on Twitter are industry experts, self-proclaimed gurus, users who invested a lot of time in getting their first two thousand followers and people trying to monetize Twitter with spam.

The truly sad thing is that Twitter has some of the coolest and most valuable third party applications that a social platform could beg for, but it could also be Twitter’s own undoing. Using the Twitter API is pretty simple and the restrictions to using it are pretty lenient.

If you use Twitter to feed potential customers with valuable and relevant content then you will probably find the ROI to be very low. The only feedback we get from Twitter is other people’s tweets. Clicks from Twitter might be plenty if you have more than 11k followers, but do yourself a favour and see how many of those clicks are legitimate visits by setting up some ‘goals’ in Google Analytics.

The problem from a user perspective is that there are just too many scammers and spammers, so your one little feed that gets auto ReTweeted five times a day simply can’t keep up. Third party applications like TweetDeck are great for fishing for relevant content, but that reminds us too much of early web mail days where we all ended up closing our Hotmail accounts. There are essentially two methods of filtering your timeline, you can use the search button, or you can manually unfollow inappropriate followers, but that is a taxing and laborious commitment.

The catch22 with Twitter is that no-one takes anything you say serious if you don’t have at least 3k followers, and by that time all you are doing is pushing ReTweets and ’Future Tweet’ feeds. Most Twitter users don’t even use Twitter to read their timelines and there are a few problems with that too. If you are using something like TweetDeck or Friendfeed you are likely to skip over your Twitter feeds and move on to more relevant or personal feeds.

Sure you can use TweetBeeps to pretend you have your finger on the pulse, but in our experience the majority of those tweets are companies posing as individuals with endorsements that are essentially unusable, which is not only bad for Twitter but puts the whole concept of social endorsements in jeopardy.

If your strategy is to use Twitter as an aggregator then I propose there are more sophisticated and appropriate platforms for that too. In fact just blindly aggregating feeds is a cheap technique for having consistent feeds on all your platforms but certainly doesn’t do much for individual strategies and leveraging platforms for what they are intended for. The truth is most clients don’t have the resources to spend time on unique platforms but that is unfortunately the only way to do it right.

Twitter might as well completely abandon the ‘Direct Message’ idea because I don’t think anyone is willing to scroll through reams of auto responders to see if there is perhaps an important message there somewhere.

The biggest problem with Twitter is that you can’t use your feeds to get an accurate feel for what is topical because for every one person following you there are at least fifty spammers and scammers following you too. That also means you can never really have a niche following – on Twitter.

I used to be a Twitter enthusiast and I still think there is hope. The most recent Twitter development where you create lists is a great step, but it just might be too little – too late. Ultimately – users need to have more control and all forms of spamming and scamming has to be eradicated in much the same way as the early email days.

The question has to be asked, if we agree that Twitter is essentially a micro blogging platform, if it really is that much better than the competitors. Tumblr for example allows users to do a lot more, a lot more effectively and if there was ever a time for Jaiku to step out of the Twitter shadow and learn from their mistakes, that time is now.

 

Popularity: 1% [?]

To be a leader in any field or business is an awesome experience, whether you are a creative director, business owner or team manager.

That does not mean it comes without a universe of effort and skill. No one is born with the ability to manage and lead other people, it is a skill that takes many years to master and I don’t think any manager out there will claim to know it all – just like I don’t believe there is any parent that would or should claim to have perfected parenthood.

It takes a special set of skills to manage people, but perhaps the most important is the ability to look at the world holistically. True leaders always get more blame than is fair and less praise than is due. A holistic thinker can detach themselves from ego, if only for a brief period in time. Praise and guilt is not part of the agenda, only responsibility. To be responsible – lies at the heart of successful management and to embrace responsibility, a leader must vanquish all traces of self indulgence.

There are many schools of thought in managing people, but neither “the Iron Fist” nor the “Soft serve” is full proof.
Ultimately you need to ask yourself, how important is it that people are happy at the workplace?

Is it the most important thing? I used to think it is, but at what cost? Is the cost of keeping people inspired really worth it? Well I think that depends on the cost.

How much does it cost to inspire a team? Constant raises, hourly compliments, full internet access, elaborate parties, an open bar and endless hours of fun. Does that inspire your team? The short answer is ‘NO’ and ultimately there is a bigger question, does an inspired team reap better results? I would say the short answer to that is also ‘NO’.

Just liking what you do doesn’t automatically make it good – it just makes it easier to do what you do and spend ludicrous hours on something that would otherwise seem like a jail term.

If the ultimate goal is to have the best product or service then an inspired team is sure to make it seem easier when we are all patting each other on the back, but does that lead to the best product?

In my own personal experience working for and under all kinds of people, ironically my best results have rarely been with my most lenient bosses or employers. It took me some time, but I think I understand why.

If the only person we have to impress is ourselves, then we tend to be a lot more forgiving about our mistakes and shortcomings. It takes a special kind of person to drive themselves to total objectivity and I am yet to meet such a person.

I have found the success factor that transcends either the ‘Soft Serve’ or ‘the Iron Fist’ methodologies. The key to success is a sense of responsibility.

A sense of responsibility is what makes our jobs rewarding. Getting complimented for how we handle those responsibilities might seem important, but there is another trap there, and is a different discussion for another day. What ultimately drive us, is the responsibility and not the praise we might receive for it.

It sure makes it easier if your team respects you – for them to internalise your instructions, but if they don’t – that does not mean you can’t get the results you want. The process of making people responsible – is different from the process of getting them to respect your decisions. Likewise motivating your team to get inspired about something they don’t believe in – requires you to make them responsible and not necessarily to internalise your instructions. The key as a manager is to find a way to communicate, even explicitly in harder situations exactly what you are after and often that would mean creating new processes.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’m one of those people that often entertain the idea of getting spammed and have occasionally reacted positively to spam (that means I actually read through it, to the final full stop). To me it is sort of an invisible nuisance that I have learned to accept, just like I have learnt to accept that most people are racist or that HIV Aids and cancer is incurable.

But then, there are exceptions. Exceptions that pull me from my chair and get me to smoke a cigarette, this is an example of such an exception.

I was Skype spammed and this is how the ‘one way’ conversation went:
Note at the end of the spam session when the dragon REALLY showed its ugly head.

DAY1

[09/08/2009 9:51:34 AM] *Spammer*: We develop mobile softwares too
[09/08/2009 9:51:45 AM] *Spammer*: as we ve expertise in I phone software
[09/08/2009 9:52:09 AM] *Spammer*: as we made many

DAY2

[09/09/2009 10:49:51 AM] *Spammer*: Hello steven
[09/09/2009 10:50:00 AM] *Spammer*: How r u doing today
[09/09/2009 10:50:03 AM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/09/2009 10:52:00 AM] *Spammer*: R u free now so dat we can discuss
[09/09/2009 12:02:10 PM] *Spammer*: http://*****
[09/09/2009 12:02:17 PM] *Spammer*: this is our portfolio
[09/09/2009 12:02:23 PM] *Spammer*: plz go thru it
[09/09/2009 12:02:32 PM] *Spammer*: n awaiting ur feedback

DAY3
[09/10/2009 12:56:41 PM] *Spammer*: Hello Steven
[09/10/2009 12:56:46 PM] *Spammer*: How r u Doing today
[09/10/2009 12:56:48 PM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/10/2009 12:58:19 PM] *Spammer*: was ur business last week
[09/10/2009 12:58:29 PM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/10/2009 12:58:43 PM] *Spammer*: ve u gone thru our companies portfolio
[09/10/2009 12:58:59 PM] *Spammer*: how does it sound to u
[09/10/2009 12:59:00 PM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/10/2009 5:24:26 PM] *Spammer*: Hello
[09/10/2009 5:24:30 PM] *Spammer*: Steven
[09/10/2009 5:24:37 PM] *Spammer*: How was the day today
[09/10/2009 5:24:46 PM] *Spammer*: how is ur business going on

DAY4
[09/11/2009 4:09:47 PM] *Spammer*: Hello Steven how r u Doing
[09/11/2009 4:10:21 PM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/11/2009 4:10:22 PM] *Spammer*: r u free so dat we can discuss
[09/11/2009 6:53:57 PM] *Spammer*: hello steven
[09/11/2009 6:54:07 PM] *Spammer*: R u free now so dat we can discuss
[09/11/2009 6:55:31 PM] *Spammer*: ?

DAY5
[09/14/2009 9:48:22 AM] *Spammer*: Hello How r u DOing today
[09/14/2009 9:48:23 AM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/14/2009 9:50:54 AM | Edited 9:51:13 AM] *Spammer*: Steven Ve u gone thru our company’s website
[09/14/2009 1:45:24 PM] *Spammer*: http://*****

DAY6
[09/15/2009 2:24:45 PM] *Spammer*: Helo Steven
[09/15/2009 2:24:53 PM] *Spammer*: How r u doing today
[09/15/2009 2:24:58 PM] *Spammer*: ?
[09/15/2009 3:01:00 PM] *Spammer*: Hello
[09/15/2009 3:01:06 PM] *Spammer*: r u free can v discuss
[09/15/2009 3:01:07 PM] *Spammer*: ?

DAY7
[09/16/2009 6:45:39 PM] *Spammer*: Hello Steven
[09/16/2009 6:45:42 PM] *Spammer*: How r u Doing
[09/16/2009 6:45:44 PM] *Spammer*: ?

DAY8 (Final Reckoning)
[09/17/2009 1:48:45 PM] *Spammer*: Hello
[09/17/2009 1:48:49 PM] *Spammer*: how r doing
[09/17/2009 1:49:53 PM] *Spammer*: Steven i cant understand how a person can be so busy dat cant even reply a word
[09/17/2009 1:50:07 PM] *Spammer*: saying do not disturb
[09/17/2009 1:50:22 PM] *Spammer*: n keeping status as available
[09/17/2009 1:50:35 PM] *Spammer*: plz keep it busy or away
[09/17/2009 1:50:50 PM] *Spammer*: i never suggest but its for u
[09/17/2009 1:50:58 PM] *Spammer*: keep it safe
[09/17/2009 1:51:42 PM] *Spammer*: ?

Popularity: 1% [?]

I recently spent some real time developing a creative feedback process that tests and evaluates creative concepts before they ‘hit the streets’. The convention is focus groups and surveys, but that is almost too far along and a focus group is simply not feasible on every single project.

Our conventional formula is to ensure concepts are emotive, exclusive, and communicative and undergoes a set of predetermined requirements depending on the type of project. All of these guidelines are placed to ensure a concept is – at the very least – memorable!

That is our standard formula, but the problem is that projects can be all those things, even be memorable and still fail to generate a proper ‘return’.

I started playing around with the idea that certain concepts are generally more likely to succeed. The problem here is, developing a formula to flesh out good concepts is like programming a computer to paint an artwork with a few variables – pretty soon the concepts will become ‘formulaic’ and your audience won’t be engaged any longer.

Then I fell deep into Satan’s pit and thought that we should only do exactly what the ‘customer’ wants. That is surely a good idea but there is one fundamental flaw; “The customer is not ALWAYS right”. You could develop a concept around exact specifications and fail miserably because of how you obtained that information. Furthermore the customer does not always understand the holistic picture and more often than not, operates from a space of personal preference.

In a best case scenario the marketing department is a successful dynamic team with a decent understanding of their audience, but again, by that time we are almost too far along.

Some ideas stick and some ideas suck, but why?

Well I still did not come up with a full proof formula, but I did develop these guidelines and ideas that could provide some assistance.

1.       Motivation. You will be surprised to know how many times certain concepts are approved based on who came up with them and the ‘rewards’ lie ahead based on the approval of those concepts. Even in big corporations with massive marketing teams, and sometimes because of it. So the key is to try and stay completely objective when deciding on a concept.

2.       Prototypes and mock-ups often look so much better than the final result. That is because the creative team often presents the concept in the best case scenario, full interpretation, glossy paper and HD monitors. However on final delivery the news print and the delivery is more than likely going to be a worst case scenario. It is better to solve a final creative in the worst case scenario.

3.       Fool the laymen. When getting feedback from peers or focus groups and even complete strangers – the information can be completely useless if you don’t ask them a direct question. The secret – is the type of question you ask. You have to make sure you don’t ask them for their creative feedback. It is better to ask simple ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions. Don’t ask for elaborations. A good example is; ‘Which one of these three examples do you prefer, concept one, two or three?’, or; “Does this image make you feel romantic, yes or no?” Don’t ask people if they like it, ask them if they can read the typeface, or which object they remember best.

4.       Explain it in a sentence. If you can’t explain a concept clearly in one sentence you are most likely not going to succeed. You can take your time formulating the sentence, and most likely the sentence will help you clarify the concept. Writing your concept down helps you identify the crux. Try to get to something so clear and memorable that you could stick it on a t-shirt.

5.       Hang it on your wall. Looking at a creative concept long enough reveals the holes and problems that need urgent solving. When you see a concept once or twice you don’t have enough exposure to ensure the concept is going to last.

6.       Requirements listed and checked. Quantity is king; the idea is to make a list – as long as possible, that will ensure the concept is on target and meets all the client’s expectations.

There are more, that I still need to test a bit further. These are by no means cast in stone – but I have found them to make me a lot more confident in presenting creative concepts that stand the test of time.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The latest Mini print ad celebrating Mini’s 50 years by Black River fc, is tastefully executed. Intricate craft and
research is clearly evident. The idea of ‘50 years and still happening’ is conveyed brilliantly through the intriguing execution. The ad shows Mini transforming from its conception to date. This is easily  evident within the beautifully designed typography, which depicts the coolest lingo of the specific time frames throughout the years. This well crafted piece of work relys solely on typography to convey the idea. The execution is not common and therefore intrigues me, the viewer even further. This in itself adds to the weight of the concept. For me this is taking print advertising to a different level where it is very evident that the understanding of concept complementing design is necessary. In this case typography design had to be understood to successfully bring out the feel of the different eras..and exceptionally done at that might I add!

Popularity: unranked [?]

There are alot of things I do that keep me motivated and keep my idea factory burning, one of the little internal tricks ill let you in on is:
Always compare yourself to the best, always strive and benchmark yourself internally at a international level regardless of what you are specialising in.
I see alot of designers with egoes that go though the roof and yet their work is sub par, I ask myself why is that? Then some of the designers ive met that are trully amazing at their art really have a grasp and solid knowlege of international trends and design, I know what your thinking, plagerism and design cohersion! There is where your skill level and ethics come in to play, a seasoned designer would be able to look at another designers work, admire it, disect it, give it a design autopsy and just carry on with life without having to copy or replicate the work seen, for the most important thing I find in design is understanding the principles and thought behind past and present designing trends. That way your mind is educated and equiped to come up with endless amounts of design variations!!! Also as a side note, I have enless amounts of moleskin notebooks that I jot ideas down in, I design a few of the ideas and super happy and very excited to upload it and see what happens, only to go do my morning rounds and find someone else has done that exact same thing!!!! It kills me but hey you have to be quick on the draw to be the best!!!!!!

Here is my morning ritual… People say breakfast is the most important meal of the day…I say THIS is the most important meal of the day, if your going to absorb anything let it be the best of the best of the best! I get to work, make myself a cup of coffee, take a seat and go through the links ive attached to my browser window, 8 sites geared towards the best of what, art design, 3d, web design, industrial design, print design, motion graphic design, and facebook just to see what karen is upto and who the guy is who keeps sending me invites to join his vampire clan!!! I go through each site and see what level of design, finish, technicality, and quality I have to strive to maintain, learn and exceed in.

Remember to be the best you have to know who the best are!!!!

Popularity: unranked [?]

2 illustrators that caught my eye whilst browsing on www.illustrators.co.za was Candice Swartz and Richard Becker. Candice has her own unique definite style that uses what seems like a combination of pencil work and colour overlays. Her work bursts with colour that creates movement to the eye. The dark greys are intense and creates depth for her dramatic pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Beckers work is extremely versatile and you cannot tell that different pieces of his work is done by the same artist. His work includes a combination of clean vector illustration, perspective and close- ups, paint and various digital brushes. I especially love his use of illustration together with real photography. The scenes he creates with the contrast of these 2 treatments adds well to the humour he evokes in his work.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I had recently found a bag of what I had thought was chocolate covered cookies in the shape of alphabets. Sadly they were not chocolate and they could only vaguely be described as cookies (I’m very critical of cookies). Luckily The alphabets remained intact, to some degree. I wondered what would the cookies say if they had to face dissappointment like we all do.

This is their story….

Popularity: unranked [?]

 I saw the Sun jar awhile ago on the internet and really couldn’t wait to get my hands on one to see how cool it would be! I was at the time impossible to get them to send me one so i had waited and bided my time until going green was the new in thing to do, and yes it finally reached the shores of South Africa! I was reading a magazine and low and behold found an article about the sun jar and where to order it, it was from http://www.thegreenshop.co.za  an awesome online store with plenty of gizmos for the guy who wants to go green and make his friends go green with envy!!!

Well I received the package and mad hast and unpacked it, I was disappointed to discover that the jar didn’t charge immediately and i had to wait till dark to view the super nova that was to be the sun jar!!!

Night fell and I was giddy like a school child, any second the light should flood from the jar…………..minutes past and nothing!!! I was horrified!!! Proceeded to take the jar part and found that there was hidden undocumented switch that controlled the entire operation!!!!!.

BOOM there was light!!!!!!…… Not a lot of light mind you!!!! Not even close to the amount of light that the picture on the box was displaying!!!! But a cheerful glow!!! Also I was looking forward to the 5 to 7 hours of light that the sun jar would provide…….. Ten minutes  later, I was plunged back into darkness as the jar discharged all the solar energy it had collected all day! My dream of running my entire house on green energy had evaporated and i was forced to turn on my lamp!!!

The sun Jar is still a very cool little gizmo, beautifully designed and rather moody when the right company comes over for a snuggle and a giggle!  And also the more you buy the close we can all get to making the planet energy efficient again…. ten minutes at a time!!!

Popularity: unranked [?]

We have a vision, that this country will flourish and those who worked to make it so will reap the rewards. As a design studio we endeavour to protect and nurture our South African heritage and culture, and instil a sense of pride into our audience with a world-class standard of work.

We invite anyone to contribute to the growth and development of South Africa. Not only in combating the key areas of AIDS, poverty and crime, but also in building an inclusive culture that unites our people in a common South African identity.

Touring South Africa:

Touring South Africa is about so much more than just seeing the Big Five at the Kruger National Park: It’s about experiencing the unique cultures that South Africa plays host to. It’s about the spirit and diversity of our people. Touring South Africa is about visiting small towns in the Karoo as the sun sets, spending an evening in a bar in Piketberg or Victoria West; it’s about visiting the Knysna Forests and going on the 7 day Amatola Hiking Trail (107km).

It’s about our big cities; Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Tshwane (Pretoria) and their unique metropolitan cultures. It’s about the spectacular scenery of the Western Cape, the majesty of the Drakensburg, the charm of the Garden Route, the scruffy appeal and rich history of the Eastern Cape and the awe-inspiring beauty of the Midlands.

South Africa has a certain type of energy that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Perhaps it’s a by-product of being different from the rest of the world in so many ways. But whatever it is, it’s worth experiencing…

Business in South Africa:

South Africa boasts the best infrastructure, banks, stock exchange and telecommunications industry in Africa. Even more vital, it plays host to a stable democracy and strong civil society. After the long, bleak years of apartheid South Africa is, in many ways, beginning to blossom.

But, along with the extraordinary opportunities, developing countries come with their fair share of challenges and South Africa is no exception. There’s a saying we use a lot here – ‘South Africa is not for sissies [wimps]‘ and often that describes the business climate best. It takes guts to weather the storms and stick in there to get the rewards.

But this is a country that is incredibly hungry for growth – in general South Africans place a high value on entrepreneurship and relish the opportunity to learn new technologies and, as a growing number of international investors will tell you, this is a great place to do business. We believe that the really big opportunities are here and that, in time, South Africa will become a major player on the world stage.

As far as media, design and production go, South African creative and production studios offer some of the most competitive prices in the world and provide their clientele with work of an exceptionally high standard. The proudly south african initiative (one of the fastest growing campaigns of its kind) plays an important role here and majority of South African companies that provide exceptional work bear the proudly south african stamp.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We were commissioned to design a look and feel for a new facebook game, I took the 3d look and feel direction, and created a little “slot into place” town landscape, characters could walk around, get into their cars, buy land and start little businesses and make them grow into massive skyscrapers. I will be adding Godzilla and king kong type characters into the scene so we can get some action going

Popularity: unranked [?]

 

 LOERIE INSANITY 2009

At Fluorescence we have been in such a tizzy trying to get all of our entries ready for the Loerie awards… Yes even after the second extension we still were busy perfecting our entries, luckily all’s well that ends well, we are all back to normal the machetes are back in their sheaths, all the hard work sweat and tears were worth it and we were left with all our entries looking awesome and polished. The next finger biting thing is the extremely long wait till September to see if our entries have made it!!!

Amongst all the frenzy some of us were kind enough to keep us motivated and on point! Our resident FINE ARTIST even though she hates the title blessed us with a beautiful Loerie chalk artwork on our chalk scream board!… I have tried doing my part by building some “Bird nest award holders” for our soon to be Loerie family, I will upload as soon as the wood glue dries.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Welcome to Say something new!

Popularity: 1% [?]

I always believed creative people need to be open to everything around them, they need to have open minds and soak it all in. I found some really cool digital art in one of the typically uncool-est places called Microsoft. I don’t care much for cool, personally I’m more of a pragmatic individual but I do appreciate trends that make me feel young and free and creative again. I bough a Zune almost a year ago, simply cuz I never liked iTunes and never really caught on to the Ipod revolution.

There it was, The Cool!

I’m not really talking about the Zune itself – although it is a marvelous piece of technology and a triumph for anyone who wanted something OTHER than an Ipod. The cool is also in the artwork they used to promote the Zune in animated adverts and downloadable wallpapers for your Zune which all look cool! All these artworks like the viral animated adverts were all originally created for the Zune.

Even cooler, customers can buy Zunes with laser engraved artworks many of which are depicted below – onto their Zunes! 120GB of Cool!

 

http://www.zune.net/en-us/mp3players/backgrounds/default.htm

I was surprised when I found Microsoft also caught on with their Beta release of Windows 7 which included 2 sets of playfull and creative digital artwork in this same fashion.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I know designers will agree with me when i say that developing a logo idea and design is completely under-rated with most new business ventures. A logo is the initial and crucial step of a brand identity. This graphic brand element is the trademark that stipulates the promise of certain values a company or product wishes to convey. A well-designed logo should convey the correct meassage. Understanding aesthetics, positioning of the brand, target market, researching competitors etc. are all part of the process.

For some reason many proffessional people believe that anyone with access to a computer and the knowledge of design programmes can design a logo for them. Most people go this route to reduce cost. Little do they realise that they will be paying a far greater price in the long run in terms of their brand identity and the way consumers are going to perceive it.

I read a pertinent article “Why logo design does not cost $5″ that talks about this issue in greater detail. A must read for designers and entrepreneurs! Here is the link below:

 

 

 

Popularity: unranked [?]

South Africa has a lot to offer the world. From design to architecture, engineering to weapons, this country has the potential to offer innovative solutions to many of the world’s problems.

We’d like to take this opportunity to look at South African design. But first, to truly understand South African design, we need to see it from a South African’s perspective and look at it in that context.

South African Design – From a South African Perspective

South African design – what is it? Well, much like the rest of the country, it’s nothing if not evolving fast. A few years ago we were asking if it even exists. Today we’re establishing genres. It’s difficult to define and yet you can spot it immediately, even in a world where styles are continually merging and cross-pollinating. Contemporary African symbols, colours and methodologies are slowly emerging after years of European and American design style derivatives.

Sure, we can’t undo the traditional Western influences. More to the point, we don’t want to. (For example David Carson’s deconstruction has an important place in a new South African design context.) But, at the same time, it’s important to build a design style that is uniquely South African.

It’s important because the development of South African style will help to forge a unique and unified South African identity. Giving birth to a culture that encourages people to celebrate their own common heritage, rather than looking to Europe or America, will also positively impact social, cultural and economic growth. And that’s starting to happen.

South African design is no longer cheesy, touristy zebra skin motifs, masks and Zulu huts. There is so much more, from Bitter Komix and I-Juicy to SABC 1’s new South African campaign. More and more television adverts are looking more and more inherently South African.

South African Design – Where It’s Going

Europe and America may have a longer documented artistic history and well-established cultural heritage with museums, cities, buildings and institutions ranging from Paris and London to New York and Hollywood. But we think that the world is eager for something new. Something that feels different. Something that grabs you out of your safe and visually complacent comfort zone. Hollywood is too fake, America is too plastic, and Europe is a caricature of its former self.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We had to “quickly” create & illustrate some visuals for a magazine ad, the main copy was:     
“Just what you need in a slow economy. High-speed online research.”
and to relate that to a computer mouse device, what the client in-visioned was a mouse that was full of gadgets and hi tech gear giving it a mean fast look and feel.

We soon realized that this approach was maybe a little to complicated and didn’t bring the concept across to clearly so we decided to go a little bit cleaner and simpler.
After illustrating the mouse outline I added just the minimal, added some flame decals and an air scoop on the top to give it that classic American muscle car look.

The client came back with some changes and wanted the mouse to look even more like a car, I then took the mouse and added some wheels and some more decals, then I decided that I needed to give this little guy a feeling of motion and added the tire streaks. Also I couldn’t wait to create this monster in 3d for later use in a fast and furious sequel.

Popularity: 1% [?]

A well-known and loved typeface Helvetica celebrated it’s 50th birthday in 2007. It was developed for the Haas Type Foundry in Switzerland by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffman in 1957.

Helvetica was initially called Neue Haas Grotesk before its name change. The name Helvetica was derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland.

I chatted to a friend of mine last nite about the movie Helvetica, produced and directed by Gary Hustwit and shown at more than 200 film festivals. This high defination movie was shot in the United States, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Switzerland, Belguim and France. The documentary revolves around typography and graphic design and it explores these aspects in urban areas and how it affects our everyday lives.

Those interviewed for the movie include renowned names in the creative industry such as Neville Brody, David Carson, Alfred Hoffmann, Paula Scher, Wim Crouwel to name just a few. We get a bit of insight of the creative processes behind their work and their use of type for aesthetics and functionality.

This is definately a movie for everyone in the creative industry to watch and have a say about!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Photoshop vectors operate on a sub-pixel level. As useful as this is it can lead to inconsistencies with the anti-aliasing which can be really problematic when designing hard edges. I bring this up because during a meeting, I brought up this particular… nuance… of Photoshop and was rather surprised that many people aren’t aware of it. So if you do a lot of vector work in Photoshop (and yes! it is great to work with vectors in PS), keep this in mind. This especially applies if you use vectors to define areas in your design for web.

One other thing worth mentioning, you can copy and paste vector data in from one Layer to another in PS without affecting the vector data that already exists. For instance, if you have a vector with an area subtracted, you can copy and paste another shape onto that layer without affecting the previous subtract.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We are busy doing our annual business card redesign and were looking for a printing company that could print color changing ink and light reactive ink, I happened upon a company that will remain anonymous , I called them the previous day and the receptionist took my details and said a representative will get in contact with me later that day, early this morning I was still waiting for a rep to get in contact with me, I called them again and was put through to a man only known as Bret, I briefed him on what we wanted to do and that I would like him to send a rep to our offices to consult and give us costing on the print job, he replied with the arrogance of asking me what I was talking about, and where did I fall out from, to say the least I was a little surprised with his attitude regarding potential business, I then re briefed him and said we need your company to print our corporate stationary, he then retorted with an air of arrogance in his voice that they don’t do that kind of thing and that he was very concerned that if he would of sent out a Rep it would be haphazard and a waist of their time, I mean that’s what a rep is for dammit they should be able to find a way to make something work!!! I then asked him calmly and without arrogance to please refer me to a company that does do heat and light reactive printing for corporate stationary, his response to me was: That he wouldn’t refer me to anyone as I would just go about everything “off the cuff”, I guess calling them and asking them for a meeting and then being ignored then calling again and asking for a consult is “off the cuff”.

I then called their HR department and requested to lay a complaint against the gentlemen in question, the call centre lady replied with well he is one of the directors so she can’t really do much, the fact that they have branches in Capetown, Durban and Johannesburg means that there are people he has to answer to.
I am just so upset with this company and the lack of professional conduct shown to a customer and will never refer or make use of their services in the future, Bret, courtesy doesn’t cost you anything.

I hope that I get some sort of reply from your Hr department at least.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This isn’t anything new, and every designer and developer goes through this particular quarrel at least a few times. Some go through it daily depending on where you are working. I don’t think that anything I post here will be bring about and end or even resolution to this heated argument, but this has been on my mind recently.

The reason it has been on my mind is because i saw it recently surface. I’d like to think that I have a better understanding or this particular debate because I’ve worked very closely with both designers and developers. If you’re wondering, I’m much more designer now, but there was a time when I was playing both sides equally. If nothing else, this has really kept my eyes open to the distinct problems that designers and developers each face. Unfortunately, most companies see the design studio and the developer’s dungeon as two separate entities. This really should not be the case, since everyone working on a project should be working together.

The main problem I’ve found starts at the start of a project. When dealing with job brief. For some reason, either the design or the functionality takes precedence over the other. I’m not sure why this happens, but I think that a lot of this split comes from the side of the client. Depending on where you are, or rather, what your company does, most of the clients are going to be more concerned with the functionality, or the visuals of the site. Eventually two intermix, but by then there is already a great rift between the design and development. So instead of the two parts (of what should be the same team) working together for a solution that satisfies both aspects of the project, we find that something that one of the parties put their hearts into, being thrust upon the other party and more than likely critically evaluated because problems that would have been solved had their been a collaboration are present.

Another big issue that I’ve found is that of ego. We all have it, and we all let it get the better of us. I do think tho that this too can be… helped with good collaboration. Criticism is something that we all encounter, but don’t often deal with properly. However, criticism from someone not part of your work circle leads to two things, offense and action. Its easier to be offended by someone you consider not part of ‘your team’ and its definitely easier to be more aggressive (in a destructive way) towards them.

So get in on the ground level, and find a solution rather that a conflict! the first steps alone are the hardest but its more fun to walk in a group

Popularity: 1% [?]

The designers skill and life cycle as defined by my own life experience…

This serves more as a way to make designers aware of the mental changes we go through, as usually understanding that you’re just going through a cycle and not necessarily stuck in a slump for the rest of your life!!!

I think most designers have dealt with this internal conflict, do you ever look back at your old work and think to yourself “Oh my god, what the hell was I thinking, this is the worst design I have ever seen and I’m responsible for it!” or had a constant burst of creative genius and milk it to death only to later look at it and think “That wasn’t actually so hot by industry standards”. Well my answer is a definite YES, YES, YES!!!

I have noticed in my years of a being a student and being a professional that a designer goes through these stages of growing, plateauing and dipping regarding design development, sometimes it becomes such a ego sapper, I guess with the dips you gain a little bit more experience and confidence knowing that soon there will be a incremental improvement in the level of design skill you possess.

Also what I have noticed is that the plateaus get longer with every jump (awwwwww) but I surmise its a necessity to be able to reach the next level.

Solution? I’m not sure if there is a quick fix, but if you know some counter measures then please send them to me!!!

Let me know your opinions on this

Popularity: 1% [?]

SOUTH AFRICAN T-SHIRT DESIGN

South African t-shirt design has definately shown that we have immense talent in this country. Wearing proudly South African gear that is unique from the rest of the world is awesome! It instills in me a feeling of patriotism and a feeling of pride:)

I recently came across the ‘Amakipkip’ brand browsing at the Zone in Rosebank. The bold and confident store caught my eye, and when i walked in i was not disappointed with the gear i saw. The hoodies sporting spongebob ranked my favourite as well as the simple comfy tees sporting the brand.

I have heard that some assume the triangle from the logo points down, quite hilarious if you look at the brand on a tee. In actual fact though the brand is symbolic of the colourful popcorn that used to be eaten from paper cones, those living in and from townships can identify with. The brand reflects the new age of our thought and our lifestyle.

Another interesting brand called ‘Laugh it off’, well-known as ‘shirt-stirrers’ is a t-shirt brand that rips off big brands in rather hilarious and thought provoking ways. They may have been taken to court before but that has not stopped them coming up with clever ways to manipulate a brand;)

An interesting website called Springleap is doing it’s bit to showcase upcoming artists or anyone that may want to try their hand at t-shirt design. There is money to be won and a chance to get your name out there. The team believes that we don’t need fabric, printing or services from other countries because we are more than capable of doing all this here in our very own homeland!

Check out the links below for more!

http://www.laughitoff.co.za/category/tshirts/

http://www.springleap.com/

 

 

                                                                                                                                                       

Popularity: 100% [?]

We all find ourselves at one point or another where our interests and goals in life are challenged…to stay motivated in times like these its always a good idea to derive inspiration from a variety of online sources to keep in mind what youre striving towards and trying to attain.
Here’s a few examples of some really interesting furniture designs to demonstrate what can happen when you just stretch your mind a bit.

Popularity: unranked [?]

 

 

Firstly, an impossible or unsolvable problem is rare, real rare. It is almost better to assume there are no problems that can never be solved. Most likely your view of the problem has simply overwhelmed you and it would be valuable – if your ego permits to get some other people involved in helping you solve these kind of problems. However once every two years  – or so, a problem makes itself available that seems impossible to solve. These are my favourite kind of problems, cause solving them often means breaking new ground or doing something truly unique.

Here are my basic guidelines to true problem solving:
1. Isolate the problem: Often problems occur in tandem or more and you could waste hours or days overlooking true solutions in the process.

2. Enhance your resources: The key is to become resourceful and build your own libraries of resources for solving problems, whether you use specific websites, books, people or computer applications. The key however is not to become overly dependent on a single resource.

Example: I need to develop and design an icon to communicate technology. Resource 1: Google Images search “technology icon”, Resource 2: Thesaurus “technology”, Resource 3: Buy a book that is rich with diagrams and pictures on the topic.

3. Know your subject: People often try to solve problems by making assumptions without sufficient knowledge about the topic. Often hard facts will steer you into a solution, but you need to know what those facts are. Assume nothing, know everything.

4. Ask a stranger: Sometimes people with no influence, without anything to prove, standing from the outside offer ingenious solutions. Be careful though, sometimes perfect strangers can offer solutions that don’t take pitfalls into consideration. With that said, they often offer solutions that go beyond convention and at least give you an idea of an expectation of what a solution would look like.

5. Ask your peers: It seems obvious, but people are often afraid to ask their peers because it makes them feel insecure or their peers seem too busy with their own problems. It is important not to load problems on your peers, isolate the problem – give it to them in the smallest chunks possible. Also, be careful not to become addicted to making your peers solve your problems, you don’t learn anything and they WILL get annoyed with you.

6. Recreate the problem: Recreating the problem in a hypothetical way often helps you dissect and re-engineer a problem. It is the opposite of reverse-engineering. Instead of breaking a problem apart into the smallest possible pieces – you start from scratch with the intent of focusing on every little detail.

7. Reverse-engineering: I personally have issues with doing this because you often interpret an existing solution in a different context to how it was originally conceptualised, and that results in an inadequate solution. However, this method will often help you get a better understanding of the problem itself. Never use this as an exclusive method to solve problems.

8. Take a break, do something else: You will be surprised how often problems get solved by just leaving it alone for a few minutes/days/weeks. Problems don’t solve themselves, but sometimes we get to close see the whole picture. Even more astounding is that sometimes other things in our lives that are not at all related to the problem offer solutions, or while looking for a new solution to a new problem you find a solution to an old problem.

9.  Try the help file: I am often shocked to find people who can’t solve problems with their hardware or software never tried the help file, or the manual. It seems so obvious yet it happens somewhere in the world every hour, which is why it deserves to be on this list.

10. Never give up: Problems never go away, until they get solved. You might think no-one will notice and in my experience you could not be more wrong.

Popularity: 1% [?]

A time of change, of revolution and of advanced technology, more advanced than it has ever been. Also more damaging than it has ever been, trying to co-exist with a green era. This is the age we experience now.

A time when we have to tighten our belts due to our plunging economy and a time when going green is the only respectable way to go, in the midst of our withering eco-system.

It is a period when design and form rely almost completely on function, since we do not have the luxuries of space and time, two greatly important items, so abundantly available in times before. 

It makes sense then that design today in terms of space, architecture and interior is based on functionality before form and aesthetic appeal is even considered. Today less is more… less furniture, less clutter and simple lines. We do not have the privilege as in times before to indulge in rich, intricate and expressive detail as much. We want to live in aesthetically appealing environments without carrying the burden of a guilty conscience of not going green. There is a way though to live beautifully in todays demanding age. It is called Scandinavian design. It is a refreshing medium that blends modern simple beauty, comfortable living, function and form together. You get to live in comfort with beautiful surroundings and a clear conscience…just a cup of coffee with 3 sugars and that makes it just about perfect!

Check out the links below to learn more about Scandinavian design and eco-friendly furniture. Yay!

http://www.worldpictures.dk/docs/index.php

http://www.scandinaviandesigns.com/

http://www.furniturehomedesign.com/

Popularity: 1% [?]

It doesn’t matter if you have the best animation, technology, actors etc., because if you miss the mark with your message and target audience then you shouldn’t have done anything at all. In fact, you could possibly do more damage than good, alienate your target market and really damage your brand. I’d like to say that this cautionary piece of advice doesn’t have any bearing on anything I’ve seen, but that would be far from the truth. Take a look at the site intro at http://www.iccm-1.org/.

I think I’d better state here than I am not associated with the ICCM in anyway, nor do I have any opinion about them or any other religious group. None of what I am about to say is an attack on the ICCM.

That being said, why would their website need such an intensive introduction? well the truth is that they don’t. I’m not sure why the ICCM decided to go with such an action-packed introduction but it definitely was a mistake. The introduction has almost no bearing on the site itself and it comes across as an attempt to provide an impact but without any direction. Designers can gather that the intro was just tacked on because someone said that the site needed more impact, but what about the layperson? No disrespect to the ICCM, but some people have come away from the introduction experience expecting a cult website (not the good kind) and others are visibly dumbfounded. This kind of presence on the web is counter productive and damaging to the organization because people instantly get the wrong message.

Unfortunately the ICCM website serves as an example of what can be done wrong when you try too hard and present a concept that does not comply with the expectations of your target market.

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Our boutique agency was asked to “quickly and swiftly” create a 30 second T.V spot for Virgin Mobile, our brief was to create a 2d illustrated character that would interact within a cell shaded world, and to say the least we had a tight deadline! We had three and a half days from conceptualization to finalization.

That entailed:

Character development
Character illustration
Character rigging for animation
Character animation
Character lip synching
Cell shaded 3d environment
Scene props

After the initial character development was finalised, we had to illustrate the character and rig the body and face for animation, when we had completed the rigging of the character it was time to animate, we started animating his body and facial expressions, after waiting a while for the copywriters (crazy, wacky bunch or awesome guys) and getting a little nervous we received the final… final…yeah right…. four voiceovers later. Whilst all this was going on we had to simultaneously build the 2d 3d world that the character lived in, whilst one designer was editing the characters arms the other designer was building trash cans and store fronts.

Speech synching had to be updated to accommodate the new tracks and movements had to be refined to fit in with the dialogue, by any standard it should have turned out to be a nightmare.. But it went smoothly from our side and we were for the most part stress free and extremely excited to get the ad on air, with the exception of a few copy changes near the end we were smiling ear to ear and loving our fellow man after the project had concluded.

Programs used in this project were:
Freehand11, 3dsmax2009, Photoshop cs3, Flash9 & After Effects Cs3

It still sticks in my mind that I would keep this project fresh in my mind and create a case study ready for the next project with similar criteria’s.

I will within the coming week blog a full case study and full making of the ad until then just let us know what you think and if there are any questions about workflow that you might have.<–>

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Google, Facebook, MSN, SMS, Skype and many things Web 2.0 making u stupid? Well all you need to consider is this basic law; anything that distracts your attention and lowers you focus – essentially makes you stupid. Google in particular has stripped us from the need to solve problems the old fashioned way and blogs has in a sense made it more important to voice an opinion than to listen.

That does not mean we go back, that would be impossible – but if you like looking into the future you can see an opportunity arising faintly in the mist. Eventually the real problem solvers are going to have died out and,…. well you get the picture 20 years ahead. If you think this is science fiction, perphaps you should look around a bit, you will notice how few rare unique views there are left, even fromt the so-called experts.

 

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Where is interface design going in 2009? Three words can sum it up: Ergonomics, intuition and minimalism.

Not since the mouse has there been such a leap in the way that people can interact with their technology. It is becoming more of a movement where the interface is being taken away from the technology and being given to the user. The evolution of the intuitive interface has been progressing for a few years now, but it has been stepped up by technological marvels like the iPhone and the Nintendo Wii. The main point of interest with this type of interaction? being natural. Instead of learning how to make the most of an interface, users are now given an interface that is natural and easy to execute. Take that and simplify it and not only does this make technological interaction more interesting to use, it also makes it easier to integrate into our lives.

So where does this leave interface design now? In a sense it lays in the same place it always has: on the front lines of the new technological movement. However, things are going to be much more interesting. One of the largest problems with interface design is being able to securely put one’s self into the shoes of an inexperienced user, but with new interaction methods such as multi-touch screens and accelerometer enabled remotes, the designer can look to himself or herself to find the best way to interact with technology. It simply comes down to the same instinct that we all have deep down creating a very real link between designer and user.

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Most creative minds know, when developing concepts for marketing, advertising or design; concept is king. This is true and will always be true, however there are aspects that will ruin any good concept.

It is understandable that a concept is only as good as the communication that conveys that concept.

If we accept and agree with this view, then it means that even though concept is king, that alone does not guarantee the concept is communicated and often a good concept is destroyed by weak or inappropriate communication. This ‘inappropriate’ communication is often driven by weak or inexperienced vision and by creatives who can’t look past their own egoistic views of a situation, or think critically about their solutions. At the same time – weak concepts are often more effective and enjoyed by the consuming public simply because the communication is so much clearer, appreciated and understood.

Communication is tangible, concepts are mush. We consume this communication subjectively and globally at the same time. Our memory helps us interpret the communication. From our memory stems expectations. From those expectations we often drive our opinions. The secret to successful communication is playing a balance game between what is expected and what is not expected. The art of distraction and attraction.

Ideas come and go, but communication sets them in stone (for better or worse).

 

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It sometimes seems that everything has been done before. While this isn’t true, there are a lot of ideas that I formulate, only to later find that they have been implemented by other people. This is something that every designer out there has, and its getting a little tougher ensuring that your design is totally original. Or at the very least, your message is original.

In an ideal world, there would be no constraints to the imaginative scope of a design, but in the real world this is rare. Very rare. Part of this problem stems from the message that a design needs to communicate with its audience. Too much imagination, and the message is lost. Too little and the message does not become engaging. The solution is to create a more engaging way to communicate your message using ways that are familiar. That said, this is not always an easy task, especially when faced with clients who’s businesses are largely dependent on existing brand recognition.

A good example of this came from something I do when I need to take a break from my design process. I tend to draw little smiley faces on my fingers as a distraction, and keep my mood and the moods of those around me up, but recently I have found that quite a lot of people on blogs and other various media have been doing this as well. I stake no claim that I invented drawing on fingers, but for the longest time, it felt like it was my own. So I did a small experiment. I drew a small smiley face on my index and went around to entertain my co workers. The result was a chuckle. It was familiar, but not particularly engaging. I then took it a step further and proceeded to draw a speech bubble across the rest of my fingers with the word “Hello!” inside it. They second reaction that I got from my co-workers was much more positive, with smiles and the phrase “I like that!”.

The point is that familiarity and grounding is now, and always will be a necessity. Non-Design people will always choose the safer option when faced with familiarity or a breach into the unknown.

Make the devil you know work for you.

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Hey all, we at fluorescence have decided to design and release a designer vinyl toy, we would love the design community to get involved and submit some designs as well so that we can submit them to “Kid robot” and “MY plastic heart”, the best of the designs we hope to be put into production, and the first series of Grazköp characters can be unleashed unto the world!

Download the design template for either: freehand 11, eps, or jpeg by clicking here:

Grazkop design kit.fh11
Grazkop design kit.eps
Grazkop design kit.jpeg

Email us your designs at neill@fluorescence.co.za and we will post them on our blog and when we have enough entries we can all vote for the best designs and send them in.

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Someone who strives for perfection has one important quality, where most people assume they are right; a perfectionist will always assume there is room for improvement especially in their own work.

To truly adopt this philosophy you can never proclaim yourself as a perfectionist, for in doing so – you will proclaim that you are without fault. Any true perfectionist will always have doubt in their art; it is what drives us to do things better.

If we always assume someone or something else is at fault. If we consistently blame the client, the government, software or the deadline – we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

Often people try to shift the blame. The perfectionist realises that it is irrelevant who is at fault, but rather how it can be fixed and avoided in the future. It is irrelevant who is at fault, what is most important is realising what the fault is. A perfectionist takes it onto him/herself to find solutions, regardless if they are at fault or not.

One golden rule in this philosophy: ‘You can and will be wrong about everything more than once.’

The issue is not if you are wrong, but rather realising you are wrong before you reach a point where you cannot go back.
Thinking critically about your own performance is far more important than thinking critically about someone else’s performance. Knowing that you can change a negative about yourself is more empowering than leaving the ball in someone else’s court. Self liberation does not come from being critical about the world, but rather being critical about your own life.

The difficult part is becoming objective about your own life and your own work, to see it through the eyes of others. It helps to act as if you are looking at your work through the eyes of your peers, such as your boss, the client, or someone you respect in the industry. Personally I always think of someone specific in the industry looking over my shoulder, and he is criticising me about everything I do. I keep doing it over and over until my imagination says something like; ‘Looks like you are finally getting it.’
True confidence can only come from knowing you have really given it your all, you have left no stone unturned and you have solved most of the problems. Anything less than this won’t give you a true sense of confidence. You cant ‘make-believe’ true confidence’, it is the difference between being arrogant and being confident.

It is not an issue of external validation, but rather for becoming self aware. You are not doing this to please other people, or to receive their approval.

On a final note, to truly adopt this philosophy you can also never be more critical about others than you are about yourself – for exactly that reason.

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Step1:
Law of distraction – speak to the heart

Step2:
Law of attraction – speak to the mind

Step3:
Go to ‘Step1′

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Now that digital design is the norm, it has become much easier for people (like myself) who don’t quite have the best of drawing or illustration skills to find something that I can use. Let’s face it, we all make use of stock libraries. Honestly I can’t even see doing some designs without a vast resource of image, sounds and video at my fingertips because nobody can do everything, unless maybe there is a lot of time available.

While all this helps out in a deadline (and there is always a deadline) I think that all the stock libraries might be leading to a real generalization of content. A good example of this would be a free stock site. The images may be free, but there simply aren’t that many images available for any given subject. Granted that most agencies won’t use a free stock site too much, but ultimately it will come down to the budget, deadline and what the client eventually decides upon.

So if you have the time, try and do something original. If you need paint splatters, take some ink and paper and do what you need for your design. Work in a smaller scale emulating the final product that you need. Get exactly what you want and make it your own.

Most stock will be similar to what you want, but hardly ever dead on. It might be a little more time consuming, but in the end you will end up with a UNIQUE result and that is more important completing a design quicker.

On a side note, since most everything is digital now, a lot of us forget what it can be like to be tactile with our design. Digital may be easier and quicker, but getting your hands dirty can be exactly what you need to spark that extra idea especially if you haven’t done it in a long time!

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Ride the snake!
To be truly creative, you need to subject yourself to creativity with all your mind and all your heart. In other words, don’t block the impulses, irrational thoughts of murder and strange dreams. Go with the flow, embrace the madness. Once you are completely consumed and overwhelmed with anxiety of your own genius – you are ready to take control. This is the part where you ride as opposed to being dragged along. Take your thoughts and appropriate and apply them to anything work related. If you can’t find anything you are working on to relate with – then apply it to your own personal work.
There are a couple of interesting results of this exercise.

1. You learn to appropriate seemingly impossible solutions.
2. Your ideas will truly be original.
3. You exercise your creative muscle when you actually ride the snake and willingly conjure up new and interesting images in your head as opposed to blocking them.

Here is the irony, whatever you are working on is most likely lingering around somewhere in your subconscious. Look back at your creative work and see how much of it was influenced by your surrounding environment. If you look carefully you will notice how your surrounding influences your work. What music you listen to, what street signs you look at every day on your way to work, the colours and shapes that surround you influences you more than you would think. Instead of being a victim of these influences you start embracing and directing these influences.

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I stumbled upon artworks by an illustrator namely Erica Burns on illustrationweb.com. Her style caught my eye because it felt like so much fun to do and she makes it look so easy! I love this clean style that feels so pure and flows so freely!

The bold black marker-like strokes hold together the naive doodle-like drawings so well against the stark white or clean colour background. The use of bright bold colours add to the naivity and almost makes me feel like a kid again, drawing in pre-school for myself.

There is a sense of innocence in this kind of artwork for me, although it takes a great deal of maturity as an illustrator to achieve. The use of photagraphy sporadically adds interest, as do any of the complete artworks that are made up of random images put together in perculiar and entertaining ways. Everytime i look at this style of illustration i almost feel giving my mouse a bit of a rest, whipping out my sketch pad, and just having some fun!

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I think fundamentally there are some problems that most of us creatives deal with frequently – and that is when business ideals clash with design principles.

The problem is that both corners have a valid point. On the one hand – design is everything – if executed properly. Design is the how, and the who and the when. Design is what distinguishes one client from the next. Design is what makes a street poster effective and a TV commercial emotional. On the other hand business is what it is all about. Business it what gives design a platform to work from. Business is what makes everything operate. Business is what drives the concept.

The key is to find out where business and design overlap and solve those issues, because in the end business must prevail. With that said, if the design is not properly solved the product will never be perfect. Making compromises on design is what is wrong with 90% of the design out there. Business essentially came and bullied the creative concept till it was nothing more than corpse with a slogan.

Truthfully there can be no one above the other – if the solution is to be honed into perfection. Design is the art of balance and business is the art of making money.

Solution: Business thinkers should be more open to sensitivity in design which in the end results in a perfect product. On the other hand creatives should refrain from assuming the business aspects are not important as in fact business principles SHOULD always be triumphant. What this implies is that, instead of giving up and saying ‘Oh well they ruined it’ we should try and find a way to accommodate the business aspects of design without losing our passion in our work.

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Productivity, Productivity, Productivity, that’s right folks it isn’t a dirty word anymore, I think most people don’t realize how much time we waste due to doing things the long way instead of the kungfu power dragon fist fast way! I have been collecting shortcut manuals for every program I use and for the most part its a real pain to memorize all of them, a lot of them I never use anyway, so i thought i would find some downright dirty sneaky top 30 shortcuts (that really matter) for photoshop, each of which I use when I am throwing heavy machinery around in photoshop.
Go ahead & read the shortcuts, learn them, there’s only 30!!!! 
View 30 Photoshop secret shortcuts

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Being a designer for many years I seek new inspiration wherever I go, little did I know that a lot of my inspiration of how I go about designing my work stems from a graffiti artist named DAIM, I was exposed to DAIMS work when I was about 18, at that time I had no idea that years from then I would be a designer and loving it still.

DAIM mesmerized me completely, his unique approach to 3d wildstyles activated the surrounding urban spaces and gave birth to a more refined movement of three dimensional graffiti art, he has even gone as far as to sculpt his wildstyles out of wood, trully amazing,  Also before i forget to mention go get his book: Daim: Daring to Push the Boundaries (Paperback) at amazon.com, its filled with some amazing photographs of his work, although I think his utmost best pieces can be found online!

Also go visit his site http://www.daimgallery.com

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Play. Just good old fashion fun for a few minutes. I’m fairly sure that this is something that most creative people do in the beginning of their working experiece, but kinda gets pushed aside when deadlines creep in and the weight of your clients sit heavy on your shoulders. Its understandable, given that in design where are no timeframes, only deadlines, but keeping yourself in a good space is essential to keep yourself from burning out and losing your creative knack.

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I have a theory; that chaos or embracing chaos breeds creativity. I have no proof for this statement, but in my experience no-one can truly escape chaos. The reason I would say chaos breeds creativity is when we look at everything indiscriminately we see how they all things change and interact with each other.

To truly look at all things objectively we must embrace chaos, because change could happen into any direction, whether we approve or not.

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